#4: To Paint or to Stain?

One of the joys and challenges of living in suburban America is maintaining your own house.  A typical house is probably 2000-3000 sq. ft., with 3 or 4 bedrooms and at least 2 baths on a 1/4 to an acre of land.  That is a lot of maintenance required on an average house, both inside and outside for a typical home owner who cannot afford to hire any outside help.

I used to do all these myself on tasks such as mowing the lawn, trimming the trees, shoveling snow, and doing minor repairs.  I recalled staining the exterior cedar shingles of the house many times myself on a 32' ladder in the  summer.  This time around, I decided to call in for some professional help.

I phoned three painting contractors and they all came in quickly and gave the same ballpark estimates.  We decided to stain again rather than painted (latex).  We also picked a different color called "Palmetto" to cover the dark brown stains we had for many years.

On the start date, two workers came in early and took down all shutters and power-washed the house with a diluted anti-mildew solution.  Then came the July 4 weekend for drying.  The taping of windows and spraying with a solid stain commenced the following Tuesday.  It went quickly for 2 layers in a single day, supplemented by rollers and brush works.  Then came the painting of all trim with a white latex paint.

The whole job took about a week.  To my pleasant surprise, the contractor actually used a very good grade of paint which listed at $40 for the stain and $70 for the trim. Overall, it was a pretty good experience and  saved my entire summer if I were to do it myself. 

The forty-year old house with cedar shingles now looks sharper than ever.  Life is pleasant living in suburbia America with plenty of room and fresh air if one does not mind paying for or doing the myriad upkeeps.  How sustainable is for this kind of resource-intensive living is always on my mind particularly in areas of high energy costs for heating and cooling.

Poscript 8/19/16. Just have a leak fixed around the chimney stack in my roof and a nice stainless steel chimney cap installed...another $1200 on home maintenance.  Spent another $600 replacing the attic fan which finally quit.  The Solvit electrician couldn't quite replace the motor so he mounted the new fan unit just underneath the old fan.  It was quite noisy but at least it is working.  I asked him to set the thermostat at 110 F. Sears Home service just called to postpone the appointment to replace a burnt out heating elements of my stove. 

Posted on 7/27/16 and updated on 8/22/16

The Sears guy finally showed up last week and gave us a quote of $400 to replace the element.  We are lucky to have a home warranty contract for the kitchen and the bath utilities without any deductibles.  The new parts came yesterday by UPS and the repair person Pierre from Haiti will install the new element this Friday.  I will make sure to keep this policy going as it sounds like a real good deal. 

Forgot to mention that the TruGreen guy showed up yesterday to aerate the lawn and did over-seeding.  Cost is ~$200.  I used to do aeration myself by renting a unit but have never done any over-seeding.  Starting watering the lawn this morning since we are experiencing a dried period.  Hopefully, most of the home maintenance are behind me and we can enjoy a peaceful life without waiting for another contractor.  Post scripted on 8/30/16.